


(this slot in your character profile has been left blank)

by brawltogethernow



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: (because Magi ♡), Agender Character, Alternate Universe, FTX Alibaba, Ficlet, Friendship, Gen, notorious princex of thieves, platonically sharing a bed, singular they
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 06:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11076120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brawltogethernow/pseuds/brawltogethernow
Summary: There isn't really time for every epic quest of self-discovery when the whole world wants a piece of you. But hey, muddling your way through introspection in your free time is good too.





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A List of Appellations:

_A girl_ slots in right next to _a bastard_ and _a street rat_ and _the youngest of three_ when it comes to reasons it would be completely preposterous for Alibaba to rule.

Rashid doesn’t seem to care.

 

1\. Peasant

They aren’t attached enough to being a girl to hold onto the inconvenience of being one while in exile.

Being mistaken for a guy sometimes _is_ convenient, but it’s not more than that. It’s all kind of the same awkwardness to Alibaba, who ekes by trying to be whatever the situation calls for. They’re good at that. Which is lucky, since it’s pretty much the only way Alibaba knows how to be.

 

2\. Royal

After Alibaba goes back to Balbadd, the talk on the street starts to sound like:

_There’s a troupe of thieves._

_A prince of thieves._

_The princess._

_Which kid is it?_

_The youngest._

_There’s a youngest?_

The Fog Troupe sees the muddled state of intelligence as a good thing. Alibaba remains a shadowy figure, usually either soft-spoken or shouting, cloaked in white and fire.

Per street style, everybody in the Troupe dresses the same. Per _fugitive style,_ they’re covering their faces. So gaining the appellation _Wonder Man_ isn’t that surprising. Nobody bothers to correct it. Frankly, Alibaba thinks it takes a while for the possibility of discrepancy to even occur to anyone. It’s been a while, but Alibaba’s old crew is still used to thinking of Alibaba, when it comes up, as _not really one of the girls, not really one of the guys, that’s just Alibaba._ Alibaba waves it off. They need both the mystery and the notoriety, just then.

 

3\. Street Rat

The streets aren’t like the palace: Sex is a practical concern; gender doesn’t affect what you do much if you’re on the bottom of the heap.

Not a lot about being back home is comfortable, but that is.

 

4\. Sibling

_A girl_ seems  even more wrong than usual for a while after Cassim dies. At first they think they’re just upset. Later they realize it’s got to be Cassim’s rukh, weighing on them, like the secondhand tobacco craving and the off-kilter feeling whenever they tap into their magoi.

 

5\. Friend

Alibaba’s excuse for using the least indicative personal pronouns when they were laying low was inoffensiveness and anonymity, and then, after, habit. Sure, something harsher would have helped with the Fog Troupe, but…

Later, they admit it’s partly something else.

“So are you a boy then?” asks Morgiana when the three of them are in bed, talking about it. Not sleeping yet, just hanging out, talking, until they actually get tired.

” _No,_ ” bursts out Alibaba, louder than they meant. “I mean,” they finish, whispering to overcompensate, “that’s not worse, but it’s not, it’s not any better. I don’t think I’m…anything.”

The point hangs there in the air, fragile and ready for swatting.

“Okay,” says Aladdin. Then, “Wow, that actually makes more sense.”

“Really?” says Alibaba, brightening. Alibaba isn’t even sure it always makes sense to _them._

“When we met, I couldn’t tell if you were a miss or a mister!” says Aladdin. “And you wouldn’t tell me!”

Alibaba wishes they could say that had been in some way deliberate on their part, but… “Your switching back and forth just sort of blended in with the rest of the ways you were really weird,” they tell Aladdin. _The kid hadn't known what money was._

Morgiana nods. Through that first encounter she wasn’t sure either and tried to take cues from Aladdin, and spun herself in frustrated dizzy circles trying to follow the magi’s eclectic trains of thought. “I thought,” she says, and then thinks about what she’s going to say for a second. “I thought that learning you’re a princess was also learning once and for all that you were a girl. And that was really surprising. But if that was because it wasn’t really true, that makes more sense.”

“I’m not a princess anymore,” says Alibaba. Not a princess of Balbadd or a prince of thieves.

They both smile at him. “Nope!” says Aladdin. “You’re not!”

**Author's Note:**

> I read a [wingfic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5627962) where babybirdblues used they/them pronouns for Alibaba, and felt like there's a kind of instinctive rightness to it. I'm still not sure why, but I squeezed 600 words out of mulling it over.
> 
> Speaking of pronouns: I like imagining the language of the _Magi_ world as like, if Arabic or maybe Farsi were structured like Japanese. Mostly to preserve all the plot/relationship/character-relevant honorifics, but relevant here because some of it hangs on how "I" can be gendered (depending) and "he/she/they" isn't. "Alternate Universe - Character Doesn't Use Ore"; now there's a tag for you.


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